ALL people fall into one of 5 belief systems. These belief systems are fundamentally incompatible with each other, so it is very unusual that a rational human being could fall under more than one category.

1. Materialism (800 million/1 billion out of 7 billion)
– Everything is biology and physics
– No God
– atheism, skepticism, etc.
– everything came from the Big Bang, random chance
– everything is from stars, everything is from dirt, everything will be dirt again

implications:
– no spiritual or moral dimension to reality
– there is no right and wrong, nothing good or evil
– death is final
– there is no meeting to life
– There is no God to give account to
– rape, murder, warfare are simply acts
– nothing means anything
– after death everything is undone

consequence:
– satisfying your personal appetites is all you can hope for while you’re alive. Sensual and physical accomplishment is the best you can achieve before you run out of time and die forever.
– science will save us. It will make us live longer and longer so eventually we might live forever, our children might live forever, evolution may eventually make us into gods in the future

2. Pantheism (2 billion/Buddhism/Scientology/Mormons)
-God is everything. Not a third person
-pan=all theism=God
-“we are part of God, we will become God”
-“What” is God – an impersonal, brutal, unthinking, creative and destructive force. Generating/organization/destructive force
-“one universal being; insomuch that people’s souls are only modifications of the divine substance.”

implications:
– God must be far too brutal to be a real person
– I and you are God, reincarnation or elevation let us attain godhood
– merge with the universal energy that is God, elevated some other way
– narcissistic, self-centered
– Everything I do is right because it is self-actualizing, self elevating or at least educational
– appeals to people’s natural self-centered nature in Western society
– limitations only exist because of fear or lack of confidence in our own godhood

consequence:
– you cannot sin. corruption evil and self destruction cannot exist unless you choose to be evil.
– delusions and deceptions cannot exist. Cannot discipline children
– since we are part of God, we can to some degree to control God
– since we are part of God, God affects all of us
– everyone from the most selfish to generous person is equally part of God

3. Appeasement theism (2 billion/Roman Catholic/Aztec/Inca civilizations)
– Angry, sadistic God that needs to be appeased
– sacrifices given to God
– depriving self, giving up value for blessings from God
– fear that God is angry with you

Implications:
– suffering elevates and purifies the soul
– EVERY religion that says that we MUST do something ourselves to gain God’s favor
– Count beads, go without meat, fasting, essential activities to be saved
– we become our own savior
– penance/indulgences/purgatory
– we must take the first step towards God
– EVERY doctrine that says we must approach God in principle before God approaches us
– We must have right behavior before God accepts us

4. Deterministic theism (Greeks/Christian Calvinists/St. Augustine)
– Fatalistic, no responsibility
– We only can control inconsequentials
– God or “other forces” direct and control us
– “It’s not my fault”
– believe in destiny
– there are no accidents, only “acts of God”
– there was a causal force, everything is destiny
– everything has a purpose
– predestination

implications
– no responsibility for our actions because we don’t determine outcomes
– you are not free, everything was meant to be
– adultery: the doctrine of soul mates, it was meant to be because your controlled by your emotions. To avoid guilt, it was meant to be that you matched up with someone younger
– no guilt over bad decisions
– no correlation between actions and consequences
– coping mechanism: “everything is the will of God” we need to understand it
– God has a purpose for domestic abuse, car accident, physical suffering because it will do some good for someone else somewhere
– everyone will be saved because God determine who will be saved
– “Once saved always saved” – nothing you can do to be lost
– God is a colossal puppet master

5. Benevolent theism
– God is an independent being who wants our good
– God is love, he is only good and has no evil in him at all
– God is not a control freak or puppet master, He is sorrowful when people use their freedom to abuse others
– God hold us responsible for our actions, we suffer the consequences of our own bad actions, but God will heal addictions, use our conscience to make us uncomfortable with evil so we will change
– God requires freedom in order to love

Implications
– God cannot point a gun at us ever to regular our behavior because this would violate both love and freedom
– God asks for trust and love from us, things impossible to be forced by a gun
– All of the behaviors above destroy love: manipulation, anger and fear, brutality, meaninglessness

The purpose of Satan is to create false images of God because by accepting any falsehood as reality our behavior models that belief. The purpose of God therefore is to erase these false pictures of God and give us the evidence that the reality is that God can be trusted.